When Kathakali became a cultural bridge between India and Australia

In 1938, Louise Lightfoot, a 35-year-old ballet dancer and choreographer born in Yangery in Australia’s Victoria state, came to Thrissur to learn more about traditional Kerala dance forms. A trained architect, she had taken up dance on a full-time basis in 1928 and was both a student and a teacher.

Her experience in Kerala would change the trajectory of her life.

“Formerly an exponent of classical or Russian ballet, she was converted to the Indian form of dance by a performance she saw in Malabar during 1938,” the Bombay Chronicle wrote in a January 1948 article. “This experience removed the lustre that her own type of ballet had held for her. The following year, she discarded her plans to continue producing ballet in Australia and returned to India, where she enrolled at the Kerala Kalamandalam academy.”

Lightfoot’s passion for Kathakali grew while she was a student at the academy. “The religious tradition and the deep spiritual content of Indian dance had an overwhelming effect upon her, and, characteristically, she determined to learn everything else she could about this profoundly exciting dance art,” the Western Mail, a newspaper in Perth, Australia, wrote in February 1948. “Miss Lightfoot, herself a dancer, absorbed its technique and emotional content until she was as conversant as possible with the background, traditions, and living spirit of Indian dancing.”

At the academy, Lightfoot met Ananda Shivaram, a Kathakali student who started performing at a young age as a part of his father’s troupe and had even earned the praise of the great poet Vallathol Narayana Menon.

Lightfoot was so impressed with Shivaram and spoke of his spiritual attachment to Kathakali and his technical brilliance that she felt made him an embodiment of the dance form. She felt that Westerners would immensely enjoy watching Kathakali performances and invited Shivaram to perform in Europe, an offer he gladly accepted as a strong proponent of the art. However, their plans could not materialise on account of the outbreak of the Second World War.

During the war years, Shivaram and his troupe performed across India and Ceylon. They had also staged a few performances in Burma, before the Japanese overran the country.

In 1947, Lightfoot arranged for Shivaram, then 26, to perform in Australia. She couldn’t raise enough money to take the whole troupe to the country and so chose two Australian girls to accompany the Malayali artist, in a break from tradition.

“The training of the Australian girls and children to dance with Shivaram was one of the most interesting achievements of his tour and a credit to the high standard of the local dancers,” the Bombay Chronicle said. “Although they were entering a medium completely foreign to them, they absorbed the intricacies and atmosphere of their parts in an amazingly short time.”

It took a great deal of courage and vision for Lightfoot to almost single-handedly organise this tour.

 “At first thought it seems a foolish, wholly impracticable scheme: a woman, without the backing of a Government, an Arts Council, or a large commercial concern, taking upon herself the sole responsibility of a young Hindu dancer who had never been in a Western country before,” the Western Mail wrote. “But the response of all Australian audiences who have seen Shivaram demonstrates that Miss Lightfoot’s faith and initiative have not been fruitless.”

The Australian tour was a resounding success. Lightfoot shortened the six-hour performances to 90 minutes to ensure that local audiences would be able to properly appreciate Kathakali. This proved to be a very good strategy and the performances received critical acclaim.

“The exquisite art of the Indian temple dance, the complexities of its movements and costumes as presented by Shivaram have made our ballet look clumsy in comparison,” the Bombay Chronicle quoted a popular critic as saying.

Shivaram performed in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and in each city, Lightfoot arranged a new group of supporting dancers from local schools and academies. He also performed in Fiji, before returning to Australia and going to Europe.   

Journalist Len Barker, who watched a few performances in Australia, beautifully described the staging of Kathakali in the country: “The spectacle of a stage in a young and modern Australian city crowded with colourfully costumed dancers seemingly lifted from an Indian setting made members of the audience feel as one with the culture rich in traditions and wisdom and older than memory.”